I'll be the first to admit that it took me long enough to get around to doing it but now that it's done you should too. What is the wonderful "it"? Voting to get some great looking Drupal panels in the lineup at SXSW 2009.

One of the problems with working on a great web framework is one makes assumptions about where the bugs lie. It is much easier to believe that the code I've written has a bug than that framework has a bug. Compounding the problem when you check out a website like Drupal.org and don't find a mention of the problem that perhaps you're the only one who has ever had the problem.

OSCON is nearly done. It has been a great week and a couple of great days at the Drupal booth on the Expo floor. Sometime I hope to get a little more written about the experience. For the moment I'm in the Greening the Conference Circuit sessionhttp://en.oreilly.com/oscon2008/public/schedule/detail/2910 where we're discussing many issues related to encouraging vendors to be more environmentally friendly. It is nice to see how many of the great ideas being discussed were implemented by the Drupal booth.

One of the best ideas relates to reducing the amount of unused, non-recyclable material in the conference bags. The suggestion in the room is that we should spend more time with conference vendors, who like Drupal, didn't produce materials in the bag and aren't handing out things at the booth that will be taken by many folks and used by few. Not having a handout has several positive effects first and foremost there isn't the waste, either in unused materials or in folks who casually pick things up but don't really ever look at it again. On the other hand at the Drupal booth we were often stacked six or eight Drupalers deep each talking to one or more interested people about Drupal. And more than a handout placed quickly in somebody's hand we could direct individuals to the best places to get information for their particular needs.

As with most conferences the really good bits have come in the hallways and in the meeting of great people. The sessions have largely been solid with a few outstanding sessions to punctuate the week.

If you spend much time in the Drupal community you'll hear the refrain don't hack core. But no matter how many times it might be said the temptation to hack core seems great. We've recently helped with several sites and there seems to be a common thread of problems caused by hacking core. These hacks are then costly to the client in the long run, often resulting in several hours (at best) of additional work to sort out what has been done and set things right.

My contractor says they need to hack core

So you've heard you shouldn't hack core and now you have a developer that is telling you they must do it to accomplish your goals. Please, Please, Please when you hear this do yourself a big favor and say no. If the contractor you're working with still says it's necessary then by all means get a second opinion. There are many, many, many, manyThis is the firm I started and own., reputable Drupal consulting firms who will help you figure out whether the hacks to core are really necessary.In addition to consulting firms there are a number of outlets like forums and local Drupal groups who would also likely have people willing to give you some suggestions The money you spend hiring one of these groups for a couple of hours will be well worth it in the long run. Read more about Don't hack core and don't hack contrib (unless you have to)

I've been on a bit of a video binge lately posting several videos from YouTube here. This can be done several ways, including using the code supplied by video sites such as YouTube. The problem for someone who wants to keep their HTML valid is that YouTube posts the video snippet using <embed> tags which aren't valid HTML. However, like it does for many things, Drupal provides an easy solution. The video filter module makes it easy to put a [ video:URL] style tag in a post and have the video embedded. And best of all it does so cleanly with valid <object> tags.

It's worth noting there are several other modules like the embeded media field that can make the process work in other ways if one is developing CCK types and wants to include videos. So if you're looking for a solution that does even more be sure to check these out.

While working on some ideas for interactive media sites I came across PBS Engage which is a Drupal site working to engage viewers in the stories on PBS. Chapter 3's portfolio lists some of the cool things they worked on including a super-duper administrative interface for the backend of the site.

If you're headed to the CALI conference on law school computing this summer be sure to check out Drupalfest. At Drupalfest a group of law school Drupalers will be taking the group through a one-day intensive Drupal setup and configuration. We'll start with a thumb-drive with the necessary applications pre-installed and leave with each person having a functioning student-organizations website.

So if you're headed to Baltimore and have always wanted to know more about this whole Drupal thing be sure to sign up and join us.

Working on a site using the jstabs module this evening I came across a bit of a challenge passing named anchors to the #redirect element of a form. The desired url for redirection in this case was /user/myuser#profile-tab-7.

Asking in #drupal led to the following tidbit from chx. (This is one of the many reasons Drupal is wonderful since Google searching didn't produce results and my experiments and requests of friends didn't produce the answer.) Anyway the challenge is that #redirect causes the form to call drupal_form_redirect() which in turn calls drupal_goto(). The drupal_goto() function takes the path, query and fragment as it's first three arguments.

Off to a great start at Drupal Camp PDX. Ben Kaplan and Andrew Morton are kicking off the day with what Drupal is and is not. Some great analogs are being used to illustrate what Drupal is and is not. Of course having a Drupal Camp in the beautiful Portland area makes it all the better. Read more about Drupal Camp PDX